SPORTSBIZ -- KEVIN KLEPS

You just saw the best the NFL has to offer; where do the Browns fit in?

Blog Entry: February 04, 2013 10:46 AM | Author: KEVIN KLEPS

It's that time of year.

The Super Bowl is over.

There was confetti — lots of it.

There was crying — too much Ray Lewis.

There was a trophy presentation — ditto on Lewis.

There was even a power outage, a surprisingly cold postgame handshake between the Harbaugh brothers, plenty of officiating complaints and more fuel for the “woe is Cleveland” camp.

Thus starts another round of “How far are the Browns from being in the Super Bowl?” discussion.

Soon, it will be the NFL combine, the April draft and a debate between Jarvis Jones, Barkevious Mingo and any other highly rated defensive end/linebacker who fits a 3-4 defense.

Until then, here is a reason to have hope about a franchise that has a .288 winning percentage the last five seasons: Salary cap space. A lot of cap space.

The new collective bargaining agreement allows teams to designate how much money they want to carry over to the following season's cap.

Say what you will about former general manager Tom Heckert, but he certainly put the Browns in a good financial position.

According to John Clayton's excellent breakdown, the Browns will enter the offseason (the league year officially begins March 12, though teams can begin negotiating with agents three days earlier) with the second-most cap space in the league at $48.9 million.

Only the Bengals, at $55.1 million, will have more room under the NFL's $120.9 salary cap than the Browns.

Yet, even with good news, there is bad.

The Bengals, with Andy Dalton, A.J. Green and a very good defensive line, have even more cap space than the Browns.

The Ravens just won the Super Bowl.

Baltimore and Pittsburgh have combined to win four of the last 13 Lombardi trophies.

While the Browns have gone a combined 23-57 since 2008, the rest of the AFC North has accounted for 11 postseason appearances — at least two per year, with a high of three in 2011.

Then there's this: Nine of the 12 teams that made the playoffs this season have a starting quarterback who is younger than Brandon Weeden, who will turn 30 on Oct. 14.

The only postseason QBs who are older than Weeden are the two obvious choices — Tom Brady and Peyton Manning — along with Houston's Matt Schaub.

Of course, that will be moot if the Browns go in another direction at quarterback, as many think they might (that cap space will come handy in a pursuit of San Francisco backup Alex Smith).

Regardless, until the Browns find a quarterback, we can break down every upcoming draft or discuss salary cap space until we're on an emotional level with Ray Lewis, who never met a camera that couldn't bring him to tears.

It doesn't matter how the Browns get the QB — five of the 12 playoff teams had starting QBs who were drafted outside of the first round (the Bengals' Andy Dalton and the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick, second round; the Seahawks' Russell Wilson and the Texans' Schaub, third round; and the Patriots' Brady, sixth round). But they need to get one.

There are different ways to do so, obviously.

Schaub was acquired in a trade, and Manning signed as a free agent. Three of the seven starting QBs in the postseason who were first-round picks were taken outside of the top 10 — the Vikings' Christian Ponder (No. 12), Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco (No. 18) and the Packers' Aaron Rodgers (No. 24).

Maybe Alex Smith is the answer.

Maybe Weeden, under the guidance of Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner, will be fine.

Maybe the Browns will surprise many analysts and select Geno Smith or Matt Barkley in the first round.

Or maybe they'll find a Russell Wilson-like gem in the Round 3.

What is a given is they play in a brutal division that has three established quarterbacks.

Until they have the same, it seems futile to break down the merits of a 3-4 defense, 40 times at the NFL combine or anything else.

Super leftovers

I'm guessing sideline reporter Steve Tasker — who was the first CBS voice we heard after the power outage at the Superdome on Sunday night — didn't expect to be anything more than a bit part of the Super Bowl broadcast. Though you have to admit, it was nice to have Phil Simms' microphone out for an extended period.

Simms — who seemed to change his mind a handful of times during replays of the controversial fourth-down pass by Kaepernick that fell incomplete and sealed the Ravens' win — didn't have his best night. Whether or not pass interference should have been called on Baltimore will be debated for months. Also up for discussion: Has Simms gotten much more annoying over time, or did I just miss it until this season?

I don't know about you, but I'm really not looking forward to Lewis' ESPN career.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information, analysis and a breakdown of times in the 40-yard dash at the upcoming NFL combine. OK, everything but the latter.

Reader Comments

Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Crain's Cleveland Business. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. Comments may be used in the print edition at editorial discretion.